AU jump-starts professional development with career fairs

Wed, 2013-01-23 15:32 -- univcomm

January 23, 2013

The Anderson University Career Development Center is known for organizing career fairs that connect students to businesses looking for interns and full time employees. Established career fairs on AU’s campus include the Healthcare Career Day, Technology Career Day, and the Collegiate Career Expo in Indianapolis. This year, the AU Alumni Office and university faculty contributed two more career fairs to the mix — an alumni career fair and an academic major fair.

On Oct. 2, AU held its first Alumni Career Fair, allowing students to connect with past graduates. Students were able to bring their résumés and meet with alumni who could offer them possible jobs and internships. All of the companies represented at this career fair employ at least one AU graduate, and several of them frequently employ AU students.

“It was our first time to do this, and about 30 alumni came out for the event, along with a few hundred of our current students,” said George Nalywaiko, director of alumni networking. “I felt that it was a very good first-time event.” Businesses such as Edward Jones, Formstack, Northwestern Mutual, and Xerox were present at the career fair for students to interact with.

The motto of the AU Alumni Office is “Staying connected for good!” The alumni fair helped guide students to do just that. “Connecting with current students is an important way that we ask our alumni to ‘give back’ to AU,” said Ben Davis, director of alumni relations. “Every time a graduate serves as a resource for a job lead or an internship opportunity, it helps build our network of support and reinforces the idea that our alumni association is a family that takes care of each other.”

In addition to the Alumni Career Fair, AU organized its first Majors Fair for current students who are undecided about what they should study. Held in the Kardatzke Wellness Center on Oct. 15, representatives from nearly every department across campus were there to explain the various areas of study at AU. The Majors Fair provided information on academic programs and the course curricula for certain departments. In addition, information about complementary majors and minors was also provided.

[Slideshow: Images from the Majors Fair at Anderson University. Photos by Hailey Burger]

Andrew Watson, a freshman at AU, used the resources provided at the Majors Fair to declare a communication arts major. “I was given a good idea of classes I would have to take for the majors I was interested in,” said Watson. “That helped me decide on my major."

The new career fairs were held in an effort to help guide students in the choices of their major and help students get connected with past alumni. “We marketed the fair to employers who had our alumni working for them by offering them a discount on the booth registration if they attended the event,” said Nalywaiko. The expected turnout was well-received, and the fairs will be events for AU in the future.

— Corinne Schmitt is a senior from Geneva, Ill., majoring in communication arts. Schmitt is an associate with Fifth Street Communications®, writing on behalf of the Anderson University Office of University Communications.